Sanibel’s coast provides nesting habitat for sea turtles and shorebirds and serves as a rest stop for birds flying thousands of miles to rest and feed. Ghost crabs burrow in the sand, and smaller creatures wriggle in the surf. Black-bellied plovers, named for their summer breeding plumage, are light-colored during their stay on Sanibel. Sea turtles nest on Sanibel from May through October, while gopher tortoises, sometimes mistaken for sea turtles, have short legs and clawed feet, unlike sea turtles’ flattened flippers about half as long as their shells. Gopher tortoises often dig in sandy dunes near the Gulf. Snowy plovers scrape aside a little sand to lay their eggs and depend on camouflage to hide their babies. Sanibel’s topography shows subtle variations in elevation between old dunes and lower wetlands, and these variations, combined with a subtropical climate, support a tremendous variety of plant and animal life. Beyond the ridges and swales, mangroves, mudflats, and seagrass stretch into Pine Island Sound, Sanibel’s mid-summer freshwater wetlands are Everglades-like, and mangroves help stabilize the bayside shoreline.